Infertility: Treatment, Procedure, Cost and Side Effects

Having a child is something many women dream of but not many get to experience. This is where In-Vitro Fertilization or IVF comes into play. IVF can be a godsend for many people, but sometimes that can fail too. Read on to know more about why IVF treatments fail and what you can do to stop it.

Reasons for IVF failure

IVF can fail due to various reasons and in order to avoid facing the same problem repeatedly, knowing the reasons might help you understand the situation better. The reasons due to which IVF fail are the following:

- Age of the eggs - Not many people know about this, but in an IVF treatment, the age of a woman’s eggs matter more than the age of the woman. With age, the quality and quantity of a woman’s eggs, known as ovarian reserve deteriorate as a result of which, the whole IVF process gets affected. Women aged under 35 years of age, who use their own eggs have an implantation rate of 40% and women aged 40 years to 42 years have a 15% chance. This is why older women choose to use the eggs of younger women for implantation as egg quality plays an important role.

- Quality of embryo - Another major reason for IVF failure is the bad quality of embryos. It is not always the fault of the uterus that you are not being able to carry a baby, it is just that your embryo is not healthy enough to implant or grow. Many IVF procedures fail due to defects in embryos.

- Lifestyle issues - Your lifestyle and daily habits can play a huge role in deciding whether your IVF will be successful or not. Most doctors ask patients to stop smoking three months prior to the procedure, as women who smoke need twice as many treatments as compared to women who do not. Smoking can also cause you to miscarry. Additionally, it is important to maintain a healthy body weight as underweight or overweight women have fewer chances of getting pregnant.

- The response of the ovaries - Not every woman’s body is the same, as some women’s ovaries do not react strongly to the medicines, in order to produce multiple eggs. If a woman has higher FSH levels or if she is over 37 years of age, then there are high chances her IVF procedure will fail. Consult your gynaecologist or endocrinologist if you have any questions or doubts.

Solutions for solving IVF failure

Just because your previous IVF treatment might have ended failure, that does not mean you should give up. You can take the following steps to ensure that it does not happen again:

- Pre-treatment tests - When you are trying to conceive a baby, the IVF treatment is not the only treatment you should focus on. You must also give due importance to the pre-treatment tests, as these tests can help you understand the inside of your body. Pre-treatment tests like a trans-vaginal scan of your ovaries, uterus and fallopian tubes, semen analysis and hormone profiling are important and should not be ignored in any way.

- Choose the right doctor - Never ever go for a doctor you are not 100% sure of. Make sure that you select a doctor that has a very high success ratio and a lot of experience behind him. There is no point compromising when you are selecting your doctor, as he will play one of the biggest parts in deciding whether you will get to be a parent or not.

- Do not overdo anything - After the embryo transfer, it is important that you maintain a healthy balance between being active and resting. Sleeping or lying on your bed all day is not a good idea for the embryo nor is being over-active. Get some light exercise if you want and follow your normal sleep schedule and you will be good to go.

- Do not be stressed out - Even though the whole IVF process can be somewhat stressful; try not to be too stressed out. It is imperative that you remain as happy and relaxed as you can, as your mental wellbeing can greatly determine your chance at success.

Children can bring a lot of joy to a person’s life and everyone should get to experience at least once in their lives. IVF is one of the best tools for becoming a parent. As long as you have a clear idea about the process, causes for its failure and how to overcome it, you will be fine.

In today’s modern era, fast paced society, it is very very common for people to become stressed. In fact, one would almost think that if you aren’t stressed out, there is something wrong with you! Realistically its not a good thing for our bodies in general, and has a major impact on your fertility potential. One may or may not realize the stress factor.

How can Stress affect your Fertility?

Research tells us that stress boosts levels of stress related hormones, such as adrenaline and cortisol, which can inhibit the release of the body’s main reproductive hormone, GnRH (gonadotropin releasing hormone), which is responsible for the release of sex hormones. Subsequently this may suppress ovulation in women, reduce sperm count in men and lower libido in both women and men. Adrenaline,which is a stress relieving hormone and gives your body the rush to face the stress. This hormone alters progesterone levels, which is essential for fertility. Caffeine reduces Prolactin hormone levels, which interferes with ovulation and fertilization. Hence its essential that your stress & anxiety levels are under control.

Chronic Stress also decreases libido:

Chronic stress may cause lack of libido as well as a decrease in general fertility. This has become so common that ,it has been specially termed as 'Stress Induced Reproductive Dysfunction'. Every couple should try to work towards reducing stress levels at work place and home, while going for fertility treatment.

Ways to reduce stress & improve fertility:

If you are having difficulty to conceive, it's imperative that you evaluate your lifestyle and look for the stress factors. Remember defeating the stress may be the solution to your worries.

1. Reduce stress : The issues in your life may be work or relationship related. You need to learn to balance your personal and professional life. The sooner you do it the better; after all you are preparing yourself to welcome a new born in your life.

2. Change your reactions: Get a hang of the situation and react accordingly. Over reaction to a situation can harm your body and mind. Stop bothering about every small thing in life.

3. Let few things be the way they are: Stop getting bothered about people who matter the least in life. Remember, most of the things will fall in place. Let few things be the way they are.

4. Make it your habit to reduce stress: Call it an obsession or a practice, train your mind to choose practical and possible solutions which will be less stressfull..

5. Sleep well: Sufficient rest is essential for a healthy mind and body. Meditation or yoga or counseling can work wonders.

Please note that if your fertility reports are normal, then it's just a matter of time. Be calm and composed so that you are able to face the rough waters clearly with your partner. Finally, follow advice of your Fertility Specialists with sincerity & determination.

In vitro fertilization (IVF) is continually helping many infertile couples achieve their goal of conception. It has the highest success rate of Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ARTs). Along with helping the parents overcome diseases in their bodies, they help prevent predicted diseases in the offspring by offering the option to pick and choose healthy and improved embryos. Needless to say, it is both a biological and social breakthrough.

There are several diseases in the parent body that IVF can help successfully bypass. They are:

• Low Sperm Count
This condition occurs when the man produces healthy, normal sperm but produces it in very low quantities. As a result, fertilization cannot properly occur. IVF can help in this regard. The healthy sperm is obtained, and procedures are carried out in the laboratory to make it suitable for fertilization.

• Fallopian Tube Damage
This occurs due to permanent and irreversible scarring of the Fallopian tubes in the female partner. Sometimes, the tubes are so damaged that surgery fails to bring it back to normal, or surgery is not feasible without harming the woman’s health farther. In such cases, IVF is very helpful as it discards the use of the Fallopian tubes in reproduction by bypassing them.

• Ovulation Issues
IVF can help a couple conceive in spite of ovulatory difficulties the woman might have. Ovulatory difficulties involve infrequent ovulation of the female More Than One Cause of Infertilityor irregular ovulation. Both these cases make it very difficult, if not impossible, for the couple to conceive.

• Inexplicable Infertility
IVF aids a lot in these cases too. In some cases, causes of infertility cannot be pinpointed after several diagnostic tests. The processes are both money and time to consuming and leaves the patients frustrated if the process fails. IVF can come to the rescue then. It has a proven track record of success aiding couples with undiagnosable infertility issues.

• More Than One Cause of Infertility
When there are several causes of infertility in both the male and female bodies, or if there are several problems with the body of an individual partner. IVF can aid successful conception.

IVF is a breakthrough biological and scientific procedure that is helping people conceive in spite of several fertility issues in their bodies. There are various debilitating reproductive disorders that IVF has helped overcome in recent years. The most major ones are listed above, and you can also benefit from IVF if you have those!
 

In vitro fertilization or IVF technology assists millions of infertile women and couples worldwide to have babies of their own. fertility problems can be of various types and origins can be congenital, acquired or accidental. However, they come as a great deterrent and source of unhappiness in the lives of people. To overcome that deficit, assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) were developed.

IVF is one of the most popular, with one of the highest success rates, and here are 4 of its primary benefits:

• It Provides Couples Relief from Infertility

There are a lot of couples who are unable to conceive and start a family of their own due to problems in either the man or the woman’s body. As a result of disease or injury, fallopian tubes may be blocked, sperm count may be low or uteruses may be damaged. IVF helps couples bypass these difficulties smoothly.

• It Provides Great Support to Single Mothers

There is a lot of social stigmas associated with single motherhood, and the question of conceiving just adds to their troubles. There are many reasons a woman may choose to embark on single motherhood. She may have been constrained financially or emotionally, too much for taking on a partner, or she may just choose to live a life that way. Society doesn’t empathise, but IVF makes their job of conception much easier and absolves them of the need to find a male.

• High Chances of Achieving Objectives

Translated to simpler language, this means high success rates. In fact, the success rates of IVF procedures are the highest among all ARTs. Granted, it does not work in all cases and some people routinely report failure. To fix this, the therapist and the patients themselves have to ensure the entire cycle is completed and is carried out under textbook conditions.

• The Ability to Pick and Choose, and a Cheaper Option

This is a medical procedure which actually gives one the option to pick and choose future children. Tests are run to determine whether life-threatening conditions like genetic anomalies are present in the embryo the couple has conceived. If any are detected, they are immediately arrested and a healthier embryo is set up for growth. Moreover, in many cases, your health insurance will pay for your IVF, making it incredibly cheap.

IVF is a much-needed boost to the medical industry in the form of helping infertile couples to give birth to healthy babies. It takes place in a laboratory under controlled conditions and has a host of benefits even above and beyond helping people conceive. 
 

Infertility is a emerging health concern today. According to the Indian Society of Assisted Reproduction, around 10-15% of Indian women are affected by infertility. The rate goes up in urban areas where every one in six women is diagnosed infertile. Around 27 million couples in India require assistance to reproduce.

What is hysterolaparoscopy?

This is an endoscopic procedure, where small telescope is introduced in abdominal cavity. Reproductive organs like uterus, ovaries, fallopian tubes, pouch of douglas are examined under magnified view. It can be diagnostic or operative scopy in case of any pathologies. Tubal patency can be confirmed using methylene blue dye (diluted one).

Just one session can clear questions relating to tubal patency, ovarian morphology, uterine abnormalities and undetected pelvic pathology. Moreover, other procedures like hysteroscopy guided tubal cannulation, lateral or fundal metroplasty, biopsy, polypectomy, adhesiolysis, septal resection and myomectomy can all be performed in the same sitting.

Which infertility patients benefit from Hystero laparoscopy?

Common indications-

• Fibroids

• Endometriosis

• Unilateral or bilateral tubal block

• Hydrosalpinx/ pyosalpinx

• Pelvic inflammatory diseases

• Septate uterus

• Asherman's syndrome

• T shaped cavity

Hysterolaparoscopy is an efficient way to optimize fertility. It is usually done when simple treatment modalities fails to achieve pregnancy or when SSG (Sono salpingo graphy)/HSG(hystero salpingo graphy) suggests tubal block or for other associated pathologies listed above or in cases of unexplained infertility.

Hysteroscopy deals with pathologies in uterine cavity, so plays vital role for women going for IVF, especially those with recurrent miscarriages, thin endometrium, h/o recurrent implantation failures, submucous myomas. Cases with Asherman's Syndrome or big submucous myomas may need second look hysteroscopy. This is a daycare procedure, whereas Laparoscopy needs at least 24 hour hospital stay. The procedure requires advanced equipments & skilled surgeon. It offers speedy recovery and minimum number of stitches on the abdomen. All this has made hysterolaparoscopy, an important tool in the evaluation of infertility.